


Fleur de Coeur

by mithrel



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Fluff, Gay Disaster Keith (Voltron), Getting Together, Lance (Voltron) is So Done, Language of Flowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 13:24:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17142551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: Keith owns a flower shop. He has a crush on an occasional client.





	Fleur de Coeur

**Author's Note:**

> My gift for delannatheelf at the Voltron Secret Santa Exchange. You said you liked Lance and Keith and wouldn't mind romantic Sheith. I hope you like it!

When the guy walks into the store, Keith is hard put to keep his jaw from sagging. He’s lucky he’s alone, Lance would totally give him shit for his reaction.

The guy starts looking around at the different flowers available, bewilderment on his face, tugging at the white tuft of hair at his forehead. It’s kind of adorable.

“Can I help you?” Keith asks–because that’s his _job,_ not because the guy is exactly his type and he wants a chance to talk to him.

“Yeah, uh...my friend Allura recently got promoted at work and I wanted to get her flowers to congratulate her, but–" the guy gestures around in confusion, “I don’t know what to pick.”

Keith keeps himself from frowning at that. It’s a small shop, without much of a selection–with one exception. “You can get her one of those?” He points to the various bouquets of roses, carnations and the like that are sitting in water.

The guy rubs the back of his neck. “I’d like something more…ah…personalized.”

Keith can’t help grinning. “You’ve come to the right place.” Lance is always ragging him about how many loose flowers they have, claiming they don’t sell. “Do you know her favorite flower?”

The guy gives him a blank look.

“How about favorite color?”

“Pink,” the guy replies, looking relieved at being able to answer one of Keith’s questions.

“Okay, we’re in business,” Keith says, coming out from behind the counter to select some flowers for a bouquet. “And you say she got a promotion?”

The guy nods.

Keith can’t resist showing off a little. Lance had bought a book of flower symbolism, mostly as a joke, he claimed, but Keith had taken to leafing through it when it was slow in the store, and it had helped him on more than one occasion.

“Hollyhock, ambition,” he says, picking one out. “Peruvian lily, wealth and prosperity,” he continues. “Mountain pink, aspiring, with the bonus that it’s her favorite color.”

He continues to pick out flowers with appropriate meanings that will look good together, noting that the guy looks impressed.

As Keith goes behind the counter again, the guy blurts out, “How do you know all that?” then blushes. “Sorry, stupid question, you work in a flower shop, of course you know what they mean."

Keith winks. “Actually,” he reaches under the counter to bring out the book, “I cheat.”

“May I?”

Keith passes the book over and the guy leafs through it as Keith wraps up the flowers and totals up the price. “$25.63.”

The guy blinks, looking up from the book, then hands him cash. Keith is a bit disappointed.

“I’m Keith, by the way,” he says as he hands the guy his change.

“Shiro,” he says, pocketing it and picking up the flowers. “Thanks again!”

“You’re welcome,” Keith says as the closing door dings. “Shiro,” he adds softly.

***

He doesn’t expect to see Shiro again, and even if he comes in again, Keith’s horrible at flirting. He’d told Lance about the interaction at his next shift, with a good amount of “His _muscles,_ holy _shit_!” and “ _Why_ didn’t I get his phone number?!”

Lance tuts at him. “You need lessons, Keithy boy.”

Keith snorts. “From you?”

“Yeah, from me! In case you haven’t noticed, I’m in a committed relationship, while _you_ are woefully single!”

“Don’t remind me,” Keith mumbles.

***

Keith truly isn’t expecting to see Shiro again. They have a few regular customers, mostly older folk, and they tend to get rushed on days like Valentine’s Day, but they’re a small shop, out of the way. Keith isn’t even sure what made Shiro pick them in the first place, but he came because his friend got promoted, and that’s not exactly a regular occurrence.

He’s totally taken off guard when Shiro walks in again at the beginning of May, and spends a few moments just staring at him.

Fortunately, Shiro isn’t looking at him. Much more certain than he’d been the first time, he heads over to the bouquets, surveying them critically.

 _Right, Mother’s Day,_ Keith thinks, as Shiro inspects the white and pink carnations, and the various colored roses.

Shiro walks up to the counter, smiling cheerfully. “Hello again! I don’t think I caught your name last time.”

“It’s Keith,” he replies, managing not to stammer.

Shiro nods. “Well, Keith, do you have any bouquets of red carnations? They’re a traditional gift on Mother’s Day in Japan.”

“If nothing else, you can collect some loose flowers to make a bouquet, but let me take a look.”

There are no pre-made bouquets of red carnations, so Keith makes one up from loose flowers and baby’s breath.

“Thanks, Keith,” Shiro says, smiling again, as Keith fumbles wrapping up the bouquet, distracted by Shiro saying his name and the sincerity in that smile. _Get a hold of yourself!_

“You’re welcome,” he says, focusing on his wrapping, and then totaling up the purchase.

“And do you do international shipping?”

They most certainly do _not_ do international shipping. They’re strictly a local, pick-up-and-buy shop, not even sending to other states.

“Yeah,” Keith says recklessly. “What’s the address?”

As Keith berates himself for his foolishness, Shiro writes something down on a slip of paper. “What do I owe you?”

He has no idea what the shipping rates are to Japan, so he bullshits something plausible, and Shiro pays and leaves, waving over his shoulder.

As he’s glancing from the address in his hand to the bouquet on the counter, wondering what the hell to do, he hears the bell over the door chime and Lance walks in.

“Someone forget their bouquet?” he says as he approaches the counter.

“No,” Keith says, still staring at the address. He can’t make head or tail of it.

A hand waves in front of his face. “ _Hello!_ Earth to Keith!”

He finally focuses on Lance. “Sorry. Shiro just left.”

Lance’s brows furrow. “And he bought you…a bouquet of red carnations?”

“No!” Keith snaps, blushing hotly at the idea of Shiro buying him flowers. “They’re for his mother!”

Lance nods in exaggerated comprehension. “Ah, I see. Shiro came in, bought a bouquet for his mother and left it with you. Makes total sense.”

“She lives in Japan!” Keith blurts, too irritated, embarrassed, and confused to keep the truth from Lance.

Lance waits a beat, then says quietly, “Keith, you know we don’t do shipping.”

“I _know!_ ” Keith growls, pulling at his hair in frustration. “He asked, and I lost my head!”

Lance’s look at him consists of a tinge of understanding, but it’s mostly overwhelmed by pity. “Well, he’s going to expect these to be there by…when do they even celebrate Mother’s Day in Japan?”

“I dunno,” Keith says, and pulls out his phone.

“Looks like it’s the same as us,” he says after a moment.

“That gives you…” Lance tallies up the days remaining to the holiday with the ease of someone in their profession, “…seven business days to get it shipped. Better get a move on.”

“…Now?” Keith asks.

“Yes, now, unless you want him back in here asking why Mama Shiro didn’t get her flowers on time.”

Wincing at the thought, Keith picks up the flowers and heads to the nearest UPS Store.

***

He’s afraid he’ll get awkward questions, but the people at the store barely bat an eye, giving him the tracking number and telling him the flowers will be there by the fourteenth. The price for shipping is mildly exorbitant, more than he’d asked from Shiro, but Keith pays it without complaint, knowing it’s his own fault, and hoping obscurely that if Shiro comes in again, he won’t want any more flowers shipped.

Keith goes through the rest of his shift in a daze. Lance is nice enough to keep his snide comments to a minimum, but when Keith gets back, he does say, “For all you know, he’s in a relationship.”

“I didn’t see a ring!” Keith says defensively, feeling his ears heat.

“That just means he’s not engaged or married. And is he even into guys?”

Keith mumbles something, knowing Lance is right. He’s being ridiculous.

***

Shiro doesn’t come in again until about a month later, and Keith’s not working. Lance tells him about it the next day.

“Apparently his friend’s appendix burst.”

Keith winces. “Not the same friend that got the promotion?”

Lance looks at him blankly, and shrugs.

“What did you give him?” Keith asks, wondering why Shiro didn’t just get something at the hospital gift shop. Was it possible he came in to see…no, that was stupid!

“Goldenrod and cardinal flower,” Lance says. “I had to look it up in that stupid book, he wanted something ‘appropriate,’” Lance makes finger-quotes around the word.

Keith grins despite himself. “Well, ‘encouragement’ and ‘energy’ certainly are appropriate.”

“He asked about you,” Lance says, far too casually. “I told him it wasn’t your shift.”

“Well, of course he’d ask about me!” Keith blusters. “I helped him the last two times!”

“Uh-huh,” Lance says, in a tone that tells Keith he’s not convinced.

***

Keith doesn’t see Shiro again for awhile, but something weird starts happening. The first time the guy with brown hair and glasses walks in, looks around, and leaves without buying anything, Keith brushes it off as a fluke. But he does the same thing the next day, sticking his head in the door, looking around and then leaving. The third time it happens, Keith mentions it to Lance when he comes in for his shift.

Lance blinks, then finally asks lamely, “You think he’s lost?”

Keith shrugs, knowing it can’t be that, but at a loss to explain it.

***

Apparently the brown-haired guy figured out whatever he needed, because there’s no sign of him the next day.

Keith’s ringing up a regular’s dozen red roses, an anniversary gift for his wife of thirty years, when the door chimes. He doesn’t look up until he’s finished the transaction, only to see Shiro with…a bouquet of flowers?

Shiro walks up to him, rubbing the back of his neck. “Hi.” His cheeks are red.

“…Hi?” Keith says, his eyes on the flowers.

“These are for you!” Shiro blurts, handing them over.

Keith looks at the bouquet and his mouth falls slowly open. Flowers from Shiro are one thing, but these…tulips, lilacs, yellow acacia…and some of the tulips are yellow too. Not only love, but “hopeless love”? What…?

Shiro stares at his dumbfounded expression. “If you don’t want…that is, I just thought…you don’t need to–"

Keith pulls himself together. “How did you know to pick these?”

Shiro smiles ruefully, though he still looks unsure. “I asked Lance.”

“You asked _Lance?_ ” Keith squawks.

Shiro blushes. “Well, yeah. I looked for a copy of the book, but I couldn’t find it, so I had to come in here…I had a friend check to see if you were working, since–"

Something clicks. “Would this friend have brown hair and glasses?”

“That’s him.”

Keith can’t believe Shiro went to all this effort. He 100% shares Shiro’s feelings, but his tongue has swelled in his mouth. He looks down at the flowers, extracts a lilac, and hands it to Shiro, whose face lights up.

**Author's Note:**

> Yellow acacia: Secret love
> 
> Lilac: First emotions of love
> 
> Tulip: Declaration of love
> 
> Yellow tulip: Hopeless love


End file.
